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Garden Trains at Texas Discovery Gardens
Texas Discovery Gardens (or TDG) is located at 3601 Martin Luther King Blvd. TDG is inside Dallas Fair Park. TDG is open to the public Wed-Sun, and you can check out their website at www.txdg.org for admission ticket prices. There is free parking conveniently located just inside Gate 6 to Fair Park. Besides the garden trains, TDG has 7.5 acres of native Texas gardens and is well known for its famous indoor butterfly house. There are many fountains and even a "snake shack" for those that are into snakes. The outdoor butterfly and hummingbird gardens are also popular. TDG is a great place for families and kids. There are several areas for outdoor picnics and even a kids playscape with a climbing wall and arial fort. Bottom line is that there's lots to do and see including the garden trains.
People on the walk between the two areas with trains at TDG. The fence is a easy to build Home Depot sectional metal fence that keeps the kids and adults at bay while still allowing good viewing.



Dec 2018. So the big day for the move from our house comes up and my wife says "you know the trains are not going with us." That takes us to Texas Discovery Gardens, www.txdg.org.


 
Wanting to find a good home for my garden trains I interviewed several possible locations. I wanted some place with enough space for the trains and also a location that would provide access to the public. I traveled all over the metro area and finally ended up just east of downtown Dallas at Fair Park. Fair Park is a historically designated public park that came to fame as the home to the 1936 World's Fair. With it's Art Deco buildings it covers 277 acres in the heart of Dallas. 

All of this helped make Texas Discovery Gardens the right future location for my trains. Texas Discovery Gardens sits in a corner of Fair Park on a 7.5 acre site. TDG is a 501c3 that is dedicated to providing native Texas plantings. It is also one of very few public gardens in Texas that is certified 'natural'. An interesting fact is that due to the abundance of plantings that provide food for the Monarch butterfly, TDG is a stopping off point as the Monarchs migrate from Canada to Mexico. To go along with the outdoor butterflies, TDG has a large indoor butterfly house. It is filled with plants and kept at the perfect temperature for the butterflies. In this indoor environments TDG is home to many species of butterflies that are not native to the area. In fact, many are considered exotic. The outdoor gardens cover 7.5 acres that are spotted with various fountains, various seating areas, a large playground area, a specialized mini-gardens featuring butterflies, hummingbirds and more. Texas Discovery Gardens is home to many weddings and events that are held not only in the gardens but in the large Grand Hall. There's even a historic 'honeymoon villa' on the grounds. They already had a large Koi Pond, so I didn't have to build that. And going along with the nature theme, TDG has all sorts of exhibits of insects and even a 'snake shack', if that fills your bill. Check it out at www.txdg.org.

So, all of this seemed like a great spot to move the garden trains to. I negotiated a space in the gardens that is about 12,000 sq/ft. It's surrounded on three sides by walkways and has another that bisects the area so there is good visibility of the space. After many trips all the train equipment was stored while I planned out the garden train layout. After months of planning, it was time to start building. The State Fair of Texas was coming in September of 2019 so time was short. 

It was now June of 2019 and it's really hot in Dallas Texas at that time of year. I managed to find some fellow garden railroaders from the local garden railroad club ( www.ntgrc.org ) to help and we got started. We knew we couldn't finish everything before the State Fair started, but we thought we could at least get a couple of loops of track down and make some sort of showing. Over the next few months we labored to haul crushed concrete base (over 10 tons) for the track, rocks and flagstone for features, and tons of decomposed granite for track ballast. We fixed some of the grade issues and managed to lay the track in a path that did not disturb anything vital and was easily visible from the walkways. We laid large areas of weed block to help prevent unwanted things from growing where we didn't want them to grow and continued to move dirt and rock. It's great to have a deadline like the State Fair of Texas and its millions of visitors.

Bottom line is we made it. We had trains running and the beginnings of some towns in place. We located our 'control center' at a highpoint where we could see everything. Power controllers were in place and wiring was run to various locations on the track so we would have good power. I decided to stay with track power. I thought about and continue to have thoughts about DCC, but track power is reliable and easy to operate. Since there are volunteers that help run the trains, track power is easy to train them on and really dependable. Yes, at the start of each day the track needs to be cleared of sticks and leaves but that would have to be done with DCC also. Bottom line, some say it's old-fashioned, but it is dependable. We started with 2 loops of track on one side and 1 larger loop on the other side. We ran the track with many viewing locations, kind of like the old Kodak picture spots if you're old enough to remember them. We fashioned several tunnels from a urethane material that looks like tree bark. We were up and running. The good news is that we made the self imposed deadline and  the trains were ready to run by the time the State Fair of Texas opened.
So, here we go getting started. Here's a partial view of the approximate 1/4 acre site that I bargained for. We laid out black landscaping cloth over the areas where we anticipated that the track and towns would be. This is to keep weeds from growing up into the track and town areas and also to help stabilize things. This picture shows an area where we were going to build up the track level higher than the existing ground so the cloth in basically just laid on top of the existing ground. In other areas where we wanted the track to be at ground level we dug down to form a shallow trench. We laid the landscaping cloth in the trench. Either way we then poured about 4-6 inches of crushed concrete paver base into the trench or on top of the landscaping cloth at ground level. This is then tamped down. Then we poured on a layer of decomposed granite or DG. This was used to fill in the gaps in the paver base and was leveled carefully both longitudinally and laterally. Or another way to say it is that we made sure the base was level both along the track length and across it. On top of this the track is actually laid and followed by a layer of DG that is filled in around the ties. We then ran a battery powered vibrating sander with a Scotchbrite pad on on top of the rails to settle the ties into the DG. All the track joints are connected with "Split-Jaw" rail joiners. The factory joiners are removed but more on that later.
Getting started laying out the track. 
As you can see it's not all connected but I couldn't resist getting a train onto the tracks. At this point I think the outer loop of track was continuous and the silver Santa Fe is on a passing siding while we work on some other switchyard track. It seems as if we're never finished laying more track. We find a use for another siding to park some extra train cars on or some other reason to make an adjustment to the track system. Of course, along with the track comes the wiring that is also needed. You have to have power to the track for the trains to run. I used low voltage outdoor lighting wiring to run from the switchbox at the power controllers to each section of track. The switchbox allows for the power to the section to be turned 'on' or 'off'. That way you can park a train on a siding or section of track while the trains run on another section or loop. The track is laid just like a real train track. A shallow trench is dug and filled with crushed concrete. That is followed by some decomposed granite to level it out. Then the track is laid on the DG and leveled up. This is followed by more DG to fill in and hold the track in place. Just like a real railroad.
Here are a couple of volunteers working on a PIKO or POLA building kit during the State Fair. We set up a table in the shade and kit building began. They also spent a fair amount of time answering questions from the fair visitors about the trains. 

It became an interesting stop for visitors to see how the buildings came together from a box with hundreds of parts to a finished building. 

These buildings are made to be outdoors all the time. The plastic is heavy duty and resistant to the weather. Over many years they might start to weather a little but that adds to the realism. The interesting part about the kits is that since they are sold all over the world the instructions are just pictorials, no words. There are little arrows to show how and where something is supposed to go and sometimes it takes a little imagination. My wife and I like to work on a kit on the kitchen bar during cold weather, bonding time.

These are only one type of building for garden trains. See the other pictures to read about them.
The power control station. This is the initial power control setup. I like the BridgeWerks controllers. They are built in the USA by a family company and built like things used to be built. They provide pure DC power and are built to "take it". They're not cheap but you get what you pay for. Since they are installed outdoors, we needed a way to not only keep them safe but also out of the weather. The fix was large storage bins from Home Depot. I screwed the tops down to the bench that we made. Then the body of the bins fits down on top of what is now the bottom. In simpler terms we used them upside down. The set-up has been used now for about 4 years and still works great. Sometimes simply is better. The controllers are kept safe from the weather and out of sight of prying eyes when not in use. I use long shank locks to keep anyone out of the set-up. This picture shows one set-up and we later expanded it to 2 of these setups.

From the back side of the controllers the wiring is run to a terminal strip block mounted to the underside of the counter. From there the outdoor lighting wiring is run to the various sections of track. For the sections that are really long I also ran the wiring to the furthest point along with the closest point. This provides good electrical supply.